Hacking Websites with SQL Injection - Computerphile

Websites can still be hacked using SQL injection - Tom explains how sites written in PHP (and other languages too) can be vulnerable and have basic security issues.

This video was filmed and edited by Sean Riley.

[bigsteamfan]

He speaks SO LOUD... lol... I think the entire cafe knows how to hack websites by now...

[Computerphile]

This is the St Pancras Renaissance hotel in London - great that they let us film after our original location fell through - shame they wouldn't let me use lights though! >Sean

[Kneedragon]

One of the better 'funny pictures' I have seen, was a numberplate on a pretty fast car, which had an SQL instruction to drop some tables... hello speed cameras ...

[Markus]

Simply: don't ever ever trust user input.

[RockLou]

"; DROP ALL DATABASES;

dammmit.

[RebeccaSentance]

"It's a hack on top of a hack.... That's a hack, and we've had to put more on top of that, and more on top of that, and more on top of that."

It's a hack stack!

[hermest]

One finger: "Facebook was originally written in PHP"
Second finger: All other things.

Nice one.

[brettefantomet]

Tom Scott is awesome! "If you can't explain it to an eight year old, you don't fully understand it yourself!" -Unknown Smart person

[capo]

>"You can read people's passwords..."

Well hopefully they're hashed anyway

[MrGeekGamer]

"It works, but it's clunky." - PHP in nutshell.

[glueee]

Oh Tom Scott, you always manage to make us feel just a tad bit more paranoid.

[DaGleese]

I literally came to the video to see if he pronounced it as "sequel" or S.Q.L.

I got my answer instantly! :D

[mittfh]

"Shouldn't work any more but still does."

Just ask TalkTalk's IT department...

[someitguy]

Amazing that he knows I'm a camera, I'm impressed!

[yessopie]

The correct way to think about this: when you are writing code that generates SQL, you need to generate it according to the SQL syntax. When you inject a string into an SQL statement, you need to convert that string into an "SQL string literal". This is done by adding the quotation marks at the beginning and end and escaping any character that has a different meaning in an SQL string literal than in a plain string (backslashes, quotes, etc...). The SQL syntax specification shows you where these string literals are allowed in a statement. If you are putting an integer into your SQL, you need to convert it to an "SQL integer literal", which is usually done just by converting it to a string. (Not an SQL string literal—just a string.)

[epicdman]

I am familiar with SQL injections but it doesn't work on any websites that are worth messing with

[Computerphile]

Description amended to be less PHP specific - he does explain using PHP though, however little the PHP specific content >Sean

[ignasmixer]

Love the non ordinary video background. Nicely explained topic. Thank you.

[Truthiness]

Oh this should be some nostalgic fun, I remember back in highschool when injecting some code into a text field and... this video is from 2013. This video is from 2013? This video is from 2013! How in holy hell could ANYONE leave such a vulnerable area of security wide open this long?

[arosepsy]

Really enjoy the lighting and setting of this one. Informative person as well. Seeing a large increase in quality on this channel and it's much appreciated.